Space Accelerator programme generates £9 million start-up investment
Author: EIS Release Date: Aug 18, 2022
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has reported on the impact of its Space Accelerator programme 2021/2022, which was launched in March 2021 as a business acceleration programme for “high-potential” entrepreneurs.
Space Accelerator programme generates £9 million start-up investment
In total, it awarded £360,000 to the Accelerator and it reports that this “catalysed” a total investment of £8.79 million from other grants and investors.
Further, it said, this opened up 80 new jobs and directly assisted 88 individual businesses between January 2020 and April 2022.
Participants included “start-up leaders”, established businesses but in their early stages, and professionals from related sectors who could possibly benefit from space expertise. Companies mentioned by name in the report include Lumi Space, Odin Space, MG Galactic, Design Freedom Space, Frontier Space Technologies and Future Transformation,
The idea was to help generating a diverse network of multi-skilled space specialists, and the UKSA said it highlighted the “significant opportunities for new space businesses to start up and thrive” with the right support.
“The Space Accelerator perfectly encapsulates the value we seek to bring as an agency: catalysing investment, delivering space capabilities and championing space,” said Harshbir Sangha, Director of Growth at UK Space Agency. “With record levels of investment flowing into the sector, we want to accelerate the growth in space start ups and create thousands of new jobs across the UK.”
You can read the full impact report online.
As well as workshops and community events, the programme included three sub-programmes: the Explore Programme (an online 8 week e-learning accelerator), the LEO Programme (a six month accelerator for post proof of concept businesses to develop) and the GEO programme (a follow on from the Leo programme to help further support fast-growth businesses over another weeks.